By CHAD DRURY
cdrury@thehawkeye.com
Former Iowa defensive back Bob Stoops is flying over the line trying to make a tackle, but there’s a huge hole for Oklahoma’s Billy Sims to run through.
Just like that picture, taken during Oklahoma’s 21-6 win in Norman, Okla., in 1979 and now hanging on the west wall at Sims’ new barbecue restaurant in Burlington, Sims was off and running with a football career — a very short, but very rewarding, career.
Now, he’s off and running with another.
“I was fortunate to get to the NFL, because not a lot of guys I played with did,” he said Friday as he was conversing and taking pictures with guests at the new Billy Sims BBQ adjacent to Community Field. “I never saw it coming.”
There was nothing in Sims’ history to suggest he would become a Heisman Trophy winner (1978), much less continue to be the Sooners’ career rushing leader (4,118 yards), to which he said he’s still “amazed.” When he was a freshman at Oklahoma, he sat behind star Joe Washington. Then, Sims got hurt his sophomore year and took a redshirt.
What followed was one of the most decorated stints in Sooners’ history.
“I had a lot of teammates help me win that Heisman,” Sims said. “We had a great supporting cast. There was no preseason build-up for me. I was just about to quit, but Coach (Barry) Switzer found something in me. I got bigger and was finally healthy. We just had a really good team that year.”
Sims led the nation in rushing with 1,896 yards in leading the Sooners to an Orange Bowl victory during his Heisman season. He just missed becoming a back-to-back Heisman winner in 1979, rushing for 1,670 yards and 23 touchdowns. He rushed 23 times for 106 yards and a touchdown in the sloppy win against the Hawkeyes in coach Hayden Fry’s first season at Iowa.
More importantly, the Sooners went 3-1 against Big 8 archrival Nebraska during Sims’ career.
“They had good running backs and some great defenses,” Sims said of the Huskers. “It always was us and them playing in the Orange Bowl.”
Sims was a budding star when the Detroit Lions drafted him first overall in the 1980 draft, and he would be named the Associated Press’ Offensive Rookie of the Year. Things were looking up after three 1,000-yard seasons in a four-year span, with the only non-1,000-yard season the strike-shortened 1982 season. However, it was Sims’ fifth season with the Lions where everything fell apart.
He’d become the Lions’ all-time leading rusher during the 1984 season, and in the eighth game that season, his career ultimately ended when he suffered a devastating knee injury at the Metrodome against the Minnesota Vikings. Because of the medicine of the time, his football career was done.
But, he’d planned ahead because, football or no football, he needed something to fall back on.
“Just like in football, I’ve had a great supporting cast in business,” he said. “I believe if you continue to give back, good things come your way. You never know when that last carry will be, so you have to prepare for the next phase of life.”
Sims became involved with many different ventures, but didn’t open his first Billy Sims BBQ until 2004. In that time, 47 restaurants have opened, mostly in Oklahoma, where Sims spends much of his time. However, he also attends all the Lions’ home games as he operates a restaurant at Ford Field in Detroit.
With his playing days over, Sims attends every Oklahoma home game, and he spent time working for the university soon after his football career was over. Much has changed with college football since he donned the crimson and cream, namely a playoff system in which the Sooners participated in last season.
He’s also seen some of his friends deal with the long-lasting effects of concussions. One of them, Tony Dorsett, who won the 1976 Heisman and later starred for the Dallas Cowboys during a hall-of-fame career, battles chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). One of his other friends, Heisman winner (1977) and Pro Football Hall of Famer Earl Campbell, is battling multiple sclerosis.
“Football is a contact sport, and we just didn’t know at the time about concussions,” said Sims, who said he’s never dealt with symptoms. “Our bodies weren’t meant to collide into each other like that. Players train year-round now, and we didn’t do that. Players are bigger and stronger now.
“But if I had to do it all over again,” he said, “sign me up.”